India, Pakistan again target army posts, villages in Kashmir

Worshipers walk past a police vehicle stationed outside a mosque belonging to a banned religious group in Islamabad. Pakistan is cracking down on outlawed Islamic radical groups.

Worshipers walk past a police vehicle stationed outside a mosque belonging to a banned religious group in Islamabad. Pakistan is cracking down on outlawed Islamic radical groups.

Photo: Anjum Naveed / Associated Press

Photo: Anjum Naveed / Associated Press

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Worshipers walk past a police vehicle stationed outside a mosque belonging to a banned religious group in Islamabad. Pakistan is cracking down on outlawed Islamic radical groups.

Worshipers walk past a police vehicle stationed outside a mosque belonging to a banned religious group in Islamabad. Pakistan is cracking down on outlawed Islamic radical groups.

Photo: Anjum Naveed / Associated Press

India, Pakistan again target army posts, villages in Kashmir

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SRINAGAR, India — Indian and Pakistani soldiers shelled military outposts and villages along their highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday, in an outbreak of new violence despite stepped-up diplomatic efforts by the rival countries to ease tensions.

The two armies accused each other of initiating the artillery and mortar fire and small-arms gunfire. No casualties were immediately reported.

Tensions have been high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan last week, carrying out what India called a preemptive strike against militants blamed for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.

Pakistan retaliated, shooting down two Indian planes and capturing a pilot, who was later returned to India in a peace gesture.

The two countries also have resumed bus and train services that were stopped following the escalation of tensions, the most serious in the long-simmering conflict since 1999, when Pakistan’s military sent a ground force into Indian-controlled Kashmir.

In another effort aimed at easing tension with India, Pakistan on Tuesday arrested dozens of people including the brother of the leader of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Kashmir.

Among the detainees were Mufti Abdul Rauf and Hammad Azhar, two prominent members of the group who were on a list of suspects given by India to Pakistan over the weekend.

Pakistan on Wednesday continued a crackdown on seminaries, mosques and hospitals belonging to outlawed groups, saying the actions were part of its efforts to fight terrorism, extremism and militancy. In Islamabad, authorities also took control of a mosque and dispensary run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity run by an anti-India cleric, Hafiz Saeed, that is widely believed to serve as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed for attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.

The new violence flared up at several places along the Line of Control that divides the Himalayan territory of Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Both of the nuclear-armed rivals claim the entire territory.

Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting Kashmir either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. About 70,000 people have died in the conflict since 1989.